Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyers owns Twilight. I do not.
A/N: Also thanks to my awesome Beta, Blueboarderchick.
Chapter 6
I woke up the following morning to sounds of laughter and pots clanking. I rolled out of bed and ambled toward the window. The view of the New Hampshire woods was beautiful, but it was made even more so by the yellow glow of the sun. I loved waking up to sunlight streaming through my window.
I peeled off my clothes, went into the bathroom and got into the shower. I yelped when the cold water shocked the hell out of me but eventually it adjusted to a warmer degree and I was able to finish my shower. I wrapped a towel around me, brushed my teeth and went back into the bedroom to get dressed. I couldn't figure out what to wear. Back in Forks I never paid attention to what I wore but for the first time, I wanted to look nice. In the end I decided to go simple. I put on a white t-shirt and black jeans with sneakers and pulled my hair back into a ponytail.
I walked down the hallway and into the kitchen where Liz was threatening to pour bacon grease down Ryan's pants while Taylor was doubled over, laughing at them.
I raised an eyebrow and asked Taylor. "Do I even want to know?"
He handed me a plate with toast, bacon and eggs on it. "Don't worry; this is a daily thing with them." I shook my head as I took the plate from him and sat down at the kitchen table.
"Good morning, Izzy." Ryan sat down and began to shovel eggs into his mouth.
Liz sat next to Ryan, hitting him with a dish towel. "Forgive his manners, Izzy, he was raised by wolves."
I choked on my toast at that. Taylor raised an inquiring eyebrow. "I've seen worse." I said, thinking back to past breakfast mornings with the pack. I felt an ache in my chest just thinking about them. I missed them all.
Ryan eyed me. "Speaking of wolves. Did you know that you talk in your sleep?"
With my cheeks burning, I moaned, "Oh god. What did I say?"
Liz snickered. "Oh, nothing much. You were just going on and on about wolves and vampires. You really need to lay off the horror movies." She had no idea. I came here to do just that.
"Yeah." I mumbled and busied myself with my eggs.
"Hey, we want to go check out the campus today. Wanna come with?" Liz prodded.
No, what I really wanted to do was to crawl back to my room and call Jacob but that was out of the question. So I said, "Sure. Why not?" And tried to look enthusiastic about it.
We finished eating and I helped Liz with the dishes before we headed out in Ryan's SUV. Liz rode shot gun while I sat in the backseat with Taylor. She adjusted the radio dials and started singing along with Rhianna Umbrella song. I winced; even Rhianna song about the damn shining sun reminded me of Jacob. I wondered how I was going to get through this, when everything reminded me of what I was trying so hard to forget. I closed my eyes and tried to breathe through the pain.
"Are you okay, Izzy?" I glanced at Taylor to see him scrutinizing me.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"
"I don't know. You looked a little sad." God, I wished he would stop paying attention to me.
"I'm not sad. Just a little tired, that's all." I turned my head to look out the window, hoping he wouldn't see the lie on my face. If Ryan and Liz heard us, they chose not to comment.
We parked on campus and got out of the car. The place had so many people walking around on the Green, headed to admissions or just generally goofing off. We walked around and checked out the Alumni Gymnasium, the libraries (I insisted), the football field (Ryan pleaded), the pool (Taylor charmed) and the art museum (Liz threatened). All in all, we did a lot of walking and my feet were killing me. So I was really glad when we stopped to eat in the Dining Hall.
"Man. Would you look at that guy? Banana boat time. He's talking to himself." Ryan pointed to a guy sitting three tables down from us.
Liz almost choked on her latte. "God, Ryan. Would you stop? The guy is not talking to himself."
"Oh yeah? Then why are his lips moving?" We looked over and sure enough his lips were moving.
"Maybe he's talking to someone." Taylor suggested.
"Like who, his invisible friend? The guy's sitting alone." Ryan pressed.
"Maybe he's singing." I offered, hiding my grin.
"Maybe he's nuts." Ryan frowned.
We looked over again. He did look a little creepy. The only real evil I had any experience with was the supernatural kind. But it wasn't the supernatural making the news every night. I suppressed a shiver.
"Maybe he is crazy." The guy didn't look like he was singing a song to me.
Ryan snapped his fingers and pointed at me. "See, Izzy thinks so too." Glad that he finally had an ally.
"Don't encourage him, Izzy." Taylor grinned at me.
"Yeah. Everybody Ryan sees is a potential serial killer." Liz quipped.
"Forget them, Izzy. You and I will be the only survivors after this guy goes all 'Norman Bates' on them." Ryan pouted. "I'm not going to end up being a lamp shade in that guy's house." The poor guy was annoyed the others weren't taking him seriously.
Liz interrupted our people watching. "This place is so cool! I can't wait for classes to start."
"I know what you mean." I couldn't wait to be much too busy to think about Jacob. Honestly, anything that could take my mind off Jacob I would welcome with open arms.
Liz leaned across the table in my direction. "Hey what do you think of that guy?"
I glanced around. "What guy?"
"The guy who hasn't taken his eyes off you ever since we got here." She whispered conspiratorially.
"W-What?" I sputtered. I didn't want to see who she was talking about.
"Yeah. He's kind of cute." That comment earned her a glare from Ryan. "What? You know you're hotter than he is." She rubbed his arm and his expression softened.
"Anyway, he's sitting behind you." Liz turned back to me. "He's cute, tall with dirty blonde hair and …Oh, and he's coming this way." She leaned away smiling like a mad woman. She was absolutely loving this.
I slouched in my seat, wishing I was invisible. Taylor was looking at me with amusement in his green eyes. I could tell he was not going to help me. Ryan was smiling sympathetically at me. Damn! None of the bastards were going to help me.
"Hello." I heard a deep voice behind me.
"Hello." I turned around to look and found myself looking at a pair of blue eyes. Liz was right. He was cute.
"Is this seat taken?" He gestured to the empty chair next to me.
"No, it isn't." Liz piped up.
He sat down looking at me. "My name is Dillon Buchanon." He held his hand out.
I shook the offered appendage. "Isabella Swan. Izzy for short." The nickname was growing on me. I turned around and introduced the others. "This is Liz, Ryan and Taylor." I thought if I introduced the others, he would talk to them instead. I was wrong.
"Nice to meet you all." He smiled. Not a bad smile at all. "So how come I've never seen you guys around before?" He asked everyone but keep his eyes on me. Jeez, were all college men so predatory?
"We're freshmen." Liz was being so helpful today. I tried to kick her foot under the table but I kicked the metal stand instead. Son of a bitch! Ouch my toe! I bit my lip trying to hold back the tears.
Liz was still chatting with Dillon, completely oblivious to my agony but Ryan was aware and was working on trying to stifle his laughter. Taylor wasn't laughing at all. He was staring at Dillon with an unfathomable expression in his eyes.
"Well, I'm a sophomore. I was wondering if you'd like to go out with me sometime." Oh God.
"Well…I…um..." I floundered. "I'm sorry but I just got out of a…thing and I'm not really ready to date." I hoped he wasn't humiliated. It wasn't my intention to hurt his feelings either.
He wasn't the least bit deterred by my refusal. "No problem, Izzy. There's no rush at all. I hope to see you around more and when you are ready to date again, I'll be right here." Well, he bounced back pretty fast and it didn't look like he was planning to give up either. Why me?
"Oh, all right." I really didn't know what to say to that.
Luckily, I was saved. At that time, a group of guys came into the Dining Hall looking for Dillon. He said his goodbyes and offered me another smile then left with them.
Liz smiled at me hopefully. "Well, I'd say that went well."
I glared at her. "And what part would that be? The part where I turned the guy down or the part where I've probably got a stalker now?"
"Oh please, don't act like you didn't think he was attractive. The guy is not a stalker." She rolled her eyes.
"He is attractive but I'm just not interested." I shook and head and fidgeted with my hands.
"Look, I'm not saying you have to date the guy. You said you just broke up with your boyfriend. Well, it will help your self esteem to know that there are cute guys out there that want to date you. What do you think, Ryan?" She turned to him.
He looked thoughtful for a second. "It doesn't hurt to have options, Izzy. But I thought that Dillon guy was kind of rude."
"Rude? Why do you think that?" I was curious now. Liz and Taylor were too.
"I mean, he saw four of us sitting together. How did he know for sure Izzy and Taylor weren't together? I mean, either he thought they were just friends or he's just the kind of guy that would hit on a guy's girlfriend right in front of him." He shrugged his shoulders.
Wow. We all just looked at him. Leave it to Ryan to take it to another level. Taylor chose to say nothing.
"I don't know. I'm just saying what I thought. Hey let's get out of here and head back to the apartment. Classes start tomorrow and I don't want to spend my last day of freedom here." Ryan got up and wrapped an arm around Liz's shoulder as they walked outside. I trailed behind them with Taylor at my side.
I jumped when he spoke, low enough so only I would hear him. "Ryan's right you know. It doesn't hurt to have options." I looked at him, wondering what he meant. There was no amusement was in his eyes this time. He was serious.
"I guess." I mumbled and looked away again. We hopped back into the SUV and drove back to the apartment.
When we got back to the apartment, Ryan was hungry again and in the mood for tacos. So we decided to make some ourselves.
We went into the kitchen and took out the ingredients. Taylor began to season the ground beef while Liz started dicing the vegetables. Ryan appointed himself supervisor but retired from that position quickly after Liz threatened him with her knife. His new job involved shutting up and grating the cheese. I took out a bowl and went to work shredding the lettuce.
After working in silence for a bit, Liz turned to me with green puppy dog eyes. "So are you still mad at me?"
I thought about it for a second. I wasn't really mad. I was mostly embarrassed. I sighed, "No, I'm not mad at you. It was just weird."
Liz frowned. "How was that weird? You're a hot girl, you have to get used to guys hitting on you. From what we've seen today, it's going to happen to you a lot." Ah crap.
"You know, you never told us about why you broke up with your boyfriend." Ryan tugged on my ponytail.
I realized that they would just keep asking so I decided to give them the edited version of the story. I dug for something society would understand. "I broke up with him because we were just in different stages of our lives." Liz raised a questioning eyebrow. "He's still in high school." I rolled my eyes.
"Still in high school? How old is he?" Liz was shocked.
I blushed. "He's sixteen." I wasn't ashamed of Jacob's age. He always acted more mature than most adult men I knew.
"Way to go, Mrs. Robinson!" Ryan had a big goofy smile on his face. Liz was next to me in an instant and Taylor was wearing his usual amused expression.
"I knew it! I knew there was a wild woman in there somewhere!" Liz was practically salivating.
"Oh man. You were dating jail bait." I slapped Ryan's hand away when he tried to fist bump me. God, I was so embarrassed.
I tried to defend myself. "Shut up, Ryan. He doesn't look sixteen." That was the wrong thing to say.
Ryan was almost on the ground howling with laughter. "That sounds like something a predator would say. Next, we'll see you cruising around playgrounds looking for your next victim." Liz was in tears at this point and making no effort to hide her laughter. Taylor was laughing and using the counter to keep himself upright. Wow, Taylor had a beautiful smile.
I was outnumbered, so I did the only thing I could do. I grabbed a handful of shredded lettuce and threw it at Ryan and a food fight broke out. Ryan threw some grated cheese at me, but I ducked and it hit Liz in the face. She threw lettuce at Ryan and hit Taylor. Taylor grabbed the chopped vegetables threw some at me. It was crazy. Liz ran out of lettuce and decided to throw flour instead. I went to grab some cheese, slipped on a piece of tomato and took Taylor down with me. That was the end of the food fight.
We were all laughing so much. I realized that this was the first time I had laughed like this in a long time. I felt carefree and happy.
Taylor helped me up while Ryan and Liz went to her room to clean up. I surveyed the damage and declared the kitchen a disaster area. Taylor stood behind me picking cheese and olives out of my hair when he leaned forward and put his lips by my ear. "You are a very intriguing woman, Isabella."
I shivered involuntarily and I think I felt goose bumps on my eyeballs. Before I could think of a way to respond, I heard Ryan coming down the hallway and I jumped away from Taylor.
"Hey guys, I think we should just order take out instead, so maybe …" He trailed off as his eyes landed on my red face. "Hey Izzy, what's going on?" His eyes darted between me and Taylor.
"Nothing. I was going to clean up in my room." And I made a hasty exit without making eye contact with Taylor.
I went to my room, took off my dirty clothes and got into the shower. As I washed my hair with my strawberry shampoo, I thought at Taylor. The guy made me nervous. I wasn't sure why though. Maybe it was the intense stares. His eyes saw way too much for my liking. I decided to push those thoughts away as I finished my shower.
I put on my robe and sat on my bed towel drying my hair when I heard a knock at my door. "Come in."
Liz poked her head in. "Hey, do you mind if I hang out here? The guys went to their place to get cleaned up."
"Sure." I decided that now would be the best time to get some info on Taylor. Liz came in and lay across my bed. I turned to her, sitting Indian style at the foot of the bed. "So why does your twin brother have an accent and you don't?"
"When we were little, our parents split up and our Mom took Taylor with her when she went back to Spain. He lived there with her until he was ten." She looked pained.
"What happened?" I had a feeling it wasn't good.
"She died." Liz was tracing an invisible pattern on my blanket.
"I'm sorry, Liz." I rubbed her shoulder.
She sniffed. "It's okay. It happened a long time ago." Suddenly her mood changed from somber to nosey. "So this ex-boyfriend of yours. What was his name?"
I looked at her, amazed at her ability to flip through emotions like that. I envied her that. "His name was Jacob…Jacob Black." I closed my eyes and let the pain wash over me. Even though it hurt to say his name out loud, I wasn't going to bottle up my feelings and start referring to Jacob as him, like I once did with Edward.
I opened my eyes to see Liz looking at me. "So do you have a picture of him? Can I see it?"
I nodded and reached over to the nightstand next to my bed and removed the lone picture I had of us from the drawer. I handed it to her.
She looked at the picture and whistled. "You said he didn't look like sixteen and you were right. He looks much older and hot too." She handed me back the picture.
"Yeah and he acted much older too." I replied, looking at it. I felt myself getting sad again and took a deep breath. I wouldn't allow myself to cry now. There would be lots of time for tears later that night.
Liz gave me a sad smile. "I'm sorry. I know you're still hurting but I think you did the right thing breaking it off now. Long distance relationships almost never work out. If Ryan and I had to go to different colleges, I would've done the same thing. Just don't close yourself off to new things, Izzy. You never know when you'll meet the next love of your life." She patted my arm.
I snorted. "The next love of my life? Not interested." As if I could put myself through all that misery again. Love? No thanks.
AN: I'm working on creating a healthier Bella before her return to Forks. BTW I put up links to pics of my characters Liz, Taylor and Ryan. Have a peek. Thanks for the reviews and the alerts.